NEW YORK – Natural gas prices have slumped well below what they were last year, and that trend will likely continue into 2010.

The contract for January delivery dropped to a new 52-week low of $4.476 per 1,000 cubic feet Thursday ahead of a government report on the nation’s supply. After a warm November in key markets, analysts expect the report to show an unseasonably small draw in natural gas, keeping the nation’s stockpile at near capacity.

If natural gas prices stay low, it should lead to cheaper home heating bills next year. And power companies that use natural gas also will feel less pressure to raise electricity rates.

Benchmark crude for January delivery lost 98 cents to $75.62 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for January delivery gained 22 cents to $78.10 on the ICE Futures exchange.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of newly laid-off workers dropped unexpectedly to the lowest level since the week of Sept. 6, 2008.

Still, the U.S. continues to sip at its petroleum reserves as millions of laid off workers have stayed out of the morning commute. Oil companies are finding it easier to store crude and deliver it later when demand has hopefully picked up.

“Demand is pretty bad,” said Peter Beutel, an analyst with Cameron Hanover. “Refiners just don’t have the incentive to run right now. So people will store crude, thinking that something will happen down the road with demand or the dollar or stocks that will raise the price.”

The demand picture right now is dismal and it’s affecting both the domestic industry and oil exporting countries.

Oil imports have sunk to the lowest point since the fourth quarter of 1990, when the U.S. was preparing for the first Gulf War, according to analyst Stephen Schork.

At the pump, retail gas prices ticked higher by less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.633 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 5.3 cents cheaper than it was a month ago, but it’s still 83 cents more expensive than the same time last year.

Refiners shut down much of their operations last year as energy prices tanked, and they’re doing so again. Crude prices are still high enough that refiners are struggling to make a profit converting it into fuel.

In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil dropped 1.44 cents to $2.0220 a gallon and gasoline fell 1.84 cents to $1.9744 a gallon. Natural gas gave up 3.8 cents to $4.492 per 1,000 cubic feet.